


Heartbeat

by kenzcraw



Series: Snapshots [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, almost a death, but everyone's fine, inspired by 2x19 promo, let Kara be angry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 01:44:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17736647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenzcraw/pseuds/kenzcraw
Summary: 'But that's not your sister's heartbeat. You know what her heart sounds like when she's alive, and now you know what it sounds like when she dies.You thought the sound of Krypton dying was the most haunting thing you would ever hear.You were wrong.'OrI watched the 2x19 promo way back when and I had feelings that just had to get out. (No one dies. Promise.)





	Heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I wrote this way back when the promo for 'Alex' aired. This was my prediction (and my coping) for how the episode was going to go.  
> Originally posted on FF, but has gone under some construction.

You had Alex's heartbeat memorized since the day you arrived on Earth. Since the moment you met her. You can pick it out over every single beat in the city without even trying. You know how it pounds with adrenaline and excitement during a mission. You tease her about how it thuds during particularly intense episodes of Game of Thrones. You know how it slows when she falls asleep, curled up on the couch next to you, with her head cushioned on your lap. You know the difference between how it stutters with fear – mostly for you, when you're fighting – and how it stutters when Maggie walks in the room.

You know my sister's heartbeat. Every part of it.

So at first, you can't understand the dull, fading beat you're straining to hear as you hurtle through the air toward the building Winn had finally tracked down. It's slow, it's muffled, and as you slice through the roof and land on the concrete floor, you have absolutely no idea what could possibly be making that noise.

Not until you see your sister, limp and unconscious, floating in that tank. For a moment, you stare, uncomprehendingly. That's not her heartbeat. You know her heartbeat, and that's not it. You've never heard that before. It can't be her heart that's slowing, fading…

Dying.

_Ba-dum… Ba-dum... Silence._

There's a muffled crashing behind you, Maggie's voice yelling, but you're already lunging toward the tank. Your fist crashes through it like butter, and you catch Alex in your arms as the glass shatters and water cascades and breaks around you. You cradle her to your chest, lower her to the floor, and Maggie is screaming her name behind you and all you can do is hold her and be swallowed by the silence pulsing in your straining ears.

"Kara, Kara, is she breathing?"

Oh Rao, she's so pale, her lips are blue, and her heart is silent. Rao, you don't know what to do. What do you do?

"Kara! Is she breathing?"

You can't hear her heart, you can't hear it. You need to hear it, it needs to beat.

" _Kara!"_

Maggie's voice shakes you enough to look up from your sister's white face and into the eyes of the man who took her. He's across the room, grinning and shrugging his shoulders. Almost like he's saying 'whoops! My bad!'

You shoot to your feet just as Maggie slides to her knees next to you in time to take Alex in her arms. Heart burning - _imploding_ \- you hurl yourself at him with an inhuman shriek ripping from your throat. His eyes widen and he takes one step back before your hands are fisted in his shirt and he's flying against the wall.

"My sister! _That's my sister_!" You're screaming, heat is burning in your eyes but you hold it back. It takes everything you have to not let the heat explode and incinerate him, the way your heart feels like it's being ripped out and set alight all at the same time.

He doesn't get to burn the way you're burning now. Not yet. He doesn't get off that easy.

You snatch him up from the floor and heave him across the room again. Bones break in his body on impact but you don't care. You can't care. His heart is beating, beating erratic and heavy, and your sister's isn't. There's a dull _glub glub glub_ from where you left Maggie with her, and somewhere in your racing, uncomprehending mind, you know Maggie is forcing her heart to beat, forcing her lungs to breathe.

But that's not your sister's heartbeat. You know what her heart sounds like when she's alive, and now you know what it sounds like when she dies.

You thought the sound of Krypton dying was the most haunting thing you would ever hear.

You were wrong.

You yank him up and know a sick pleasure at the sight of the blood dripping from his mouth, the panic in his eyes, the whimper that escapes when you raise a fist and bring it crashing across his face. His heart is pounding away, strong and alive and your sister's isn't. How is that fair? How are you supposed to live with that?

You _can't_.

You hit him again and teeth fly out of his mouth.

Behind you, Maggie is sobbing and Alex's heart is a forced _glub glub glub_.

You hit him again, and his cheekbone shatters around your knuckles and he shrieks. He's saying something to you– begging, you think – and you hit him again, again, again. Each one with a name attached to it.

_Alex, Alex, Alex, Alex._

Your whole world, ripped from you. _Again_.

Your knees give out and you drag him down to the floor, leaning over him, still throwing your fist against his cheek. _Crunch, crunch, crunch_.

_Glub glub glub._

_Alex, Alex, Alex, Alex._

You're screaming, the heat is building behind your eyes and you don't want to hold it back anymore. You don't think you can. He's conscious enough to see the red ringing your eyes, enough to hold his trembling hands out, a muffled "please," whispered through bloody lips.

_Glub glub… Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum._

It's wild, it's erratic and pained, but you know that beat. It's suddenly crashing in your ears and you jerk your head around to see Maggie, in hysterics, cradling your sister, brushing locks of soaked hair away from her face.

But she's smiling. And saying something that sounds a lot like "hey, hey, you're okay, just breathe. Breathe, Alex."

And _Alex_. Your eyes lock on her.

Your sister is coughing, gasping and _breathing_. Desperate, hacking breaths.

That beat is going strong now, familiar and grounding and beautiful.

_Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum._

Your fingers go limp around his shirt and you're crawling over to them on trembling hands and knees, eyes blurred not by heat vision, but by tears. You're dimly aware of uniformed figures - DEO or NCPD, you don't know and don't care - surging around the three of you, voices yelling and weapons flashing. Cuffing the barely conscious man behind you. You ignore them and drag yourself the remaining feet to where Maggie is holding Alex, helping her sit up a little so she can breathe.

Maggie looks up at you, holds a hand out to you and brushes your hair away from your face. "It's okay, Little Danvers. She's okay."

You can barely hear her over the thudding in your ears, the beat that you're still not sure you're hearing. You reach for Alex, and her hand comes up to your face, brushing away a tear.

"I'm okay, I'm okay." Her voice, raspy and rough as it is, is a balm. Soothing what remains of the burning rage and grief that had your eyes searing just seconds ago. "Kara, I'm okay."

You try to choke out her name but it ends up being a whimpered sob. You squeeze your arms around her until she's sandwiched between you and Maggie. She nestles her face in the crook of your neck, still gasping out ragged breaths against your skin. Rasping your name and Maggie's in whispers you can barely hear so you doubt Maggie can. You press your face against her soaking wet hair and squeeze your eyes shut, straining with everything in you to hear her heartbeat. Listening until it's the only thing you can hear.

_Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum._

**Author's Note:**

> #LESBIANLIVES


End file.
